Postwar Germany adopted ordoliberalism because the Freiburg school survived the Nazis intact

Evidence

That ordoliberal arguments would become the local economic instruction sheet for economic policy in postwar Germany was almost overdetermined. First of all, the German population was exhausted and hungry while the country’s capital stock was decimated. Fearing political instability, the postwar authorities needed growth, and like the population they governed, those authorities were suspicious of growth coming from “big-state” projects, whether from the left or the right. Second, the Freiburg school, which was not shy in hawking a growth project, emerged from the Nazi period unsullied and more or less intact. While some members were arrested and a few key players such as Wilhelm Röpke were driven into exile, the core of the school was in the right place at the right time, armed with what seemed to be, in the German context, new growth-friendly ideas. The ordoliberals also had powerful sponsors in the form of the leading newspaper of the day, Franfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, and the ear of the Allied occupation authorities, at least once the Allies moved out of the punitive phase of the occupation. — Mark Blyth, Austerity, 367

Categorization

• XREF: The contingent survival of the Freiburg school parallels how the Mont Pèlerin Society’s wartime gestation shaped later austerity — connects to Blyth’s central argument about ideas needing institutional carriers. — connects to: Academic lineage reproduction, not just ideas, carried ordoliberalism into postwar Germany — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 623; Freiburg’s ordoliberal circle remained active research centers under Nazism — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 622; Ordoliberals advised the Nazi regime while also networking postwar plans — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 623 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Freiburg’s ordoliberal circle remained active research centers under Nazism #corroborates (0.95) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 622
• Academic lineage reproduction, not just ideas, carried ordoliberalism into postwar Germany #expands (0.90) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 623
• Ordoliberals advised the Nazi regime while also networking postwar plans #complicates (0.85) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 623
• The Freiburg school sought to install an authoritarian competitive order within Nazi Germany. #complicates (0.80) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 542
• Ordoliberal constitution of the economy was a compromise accommodating Nazi political supremacy #qualifies (0.75) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 585
• Monetarism and ordoliberalism shared personal and institutional connections in Germany #expands (0.75) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 632